1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a system and method for telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method of using Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) technology and/or Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology as the backhaul in deploying base stations. WiMax relates to the IEEE 802.16 wireless broadband standard, and WiFi refers to the IEEE 802.11b wireless networking standard.
2. Background Information
Conventional wireless communication networks typically include a plurality of base stations that provide wireless connectivity to one or more geographical areas, which are usually referred to as cells. Mobile stations may establish wireless communication links with one or more of the base stations according to one or more wireless communication protocols, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA, CDMA 2000), etc. As used herein, mobile stations include cellular telephones, personal data assistants, smart phones, text messaging devices, laptop computers, etc.
Base stations are typically connected to the wireless communication network by a switch, such as a Radio Network Controller (RNC) or a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), by a backhaul connection. Multiple base stations and switches may share the same physical backhaul facility. The backhaul capacity is usually considered to be one of the scarcest resources in a wireless communication network, at least in part because service providers often lease portions of the backhaul connection. For example, a service provider may lease a portion of a T1 connection to use as a backhaul connection. Service providers may then engineer the backhaul connection so that it does not cover the worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is the scenario in which all base stations transmit and receive at their individual maximum capacities at the same time. This deliberate under-engineering of the backhaul connection may cause backhaul contentions to arise between different users and/or different data flows.
Conventionally, the backhaul connections are wired connections. For example, conventional backhaul connections may include T1 carriers, E1 carriers and STM/OC3 carriers, for example. T1, E1 and STM/OC3 carriers are well-known wired network lines and thus, specifics of these carriers will not be discussed herein for the sake of brevity. However, it is noted that because these carriers are wired connections there are various disadvantages and costs associated with using these carriers for the backhaul connections. For example, deploying cables in metropolitan areas may be difficult and/or expensive. Some cities may have prohibitions on placing carriers above ground and thus, all the backhaul cables may be required to be placed below ground resulting in additional costs.
Example embodiments of the present invention, which are detailed in the following section of this application are directed to addressing issues relating to conventional backhaul systems and relate to backhaul systems and methods implementing wireless connections, such as WiMax and WiFi connections.